Bitter Regret
by Last Haven
Summary: Across the battlefield, they stared each other down. Swords at the ready, Venus and her lover would ultimately be the death of each other. MinakoKunzite


Across the battlefield, they stared each other down. Intense, wet blue eyes clashed with deaden, dull grey, waiting indefinitely for the first sign of the other's movement, the moment to strike. Swords at the ready, Venus and her lover would ultimately be the death of each other.

Watching him, listening to the sound of her shattering heart--which she had thought was already broken-- Venus tried to quell the little voice in the back of her mind screaming _why why why, what went wrong, why did this of all things happen?_ Lifting her blade in her hands, she stroke downward and claimed her fourth youma. Kunzite broke stance and ran to run her through-her movement had broken the stand-off-stare-down.

_Why,_ she thought with deep seated remorse,_ did_ this _happen?_

---

The first time she saw him was when she teleported to Earth to look for Princess Serenity.

"Serenity!" she huffed, finally catching sight of the swirl of silk as her princess tried to hide behind her disappointed prince and his amused guard. Venus gave both the Prince of Earth and his guard a hard glare before starting over to her hiding ruler. "Serenity, coming here is forbidden!" _And do you know how **hard** it is running around in high heels is?_ she thought to herself, once more mentally despairing at her unpractical sailor fuku. _And needless to say, falling in love with an earthling none the less is just as forbidden._

"Your princess--" started the grinning guard, undoubtably amused at her suffering and also staring unabashed at her long exposed legs. "--is quite mischievous. No wonder you can't keep up with her."

"Kunzite!" gaped Endymion, shocked on the girls' behalf.

Flushing angrily and also embarrassed to having him looking at her so, she reached over and began to tug her princess away physically.

"Aww, _Veeeenuuus--!"_ whined Serenity, fighting her guard but also defeatedily waving to her prince and his guard. "Goodbye, darling! Goodbye, Kunzite-sama!"

"Farewell, my angel." grinned Endymion, giving their retreating forms a bow.

"Be good for your poor guards, my lady!" laughed Kunzite with a wave. Venus peeked back over her shoulder at him and he gave her a sincere grin before turning to his prince. "And I thought you were trouble!" he laughed at his prince. Venus flushed again and made a hasty retreat thinking of the silver haired man with his leering grin.

---

The next time she saw him, was a ball held in the Moon Castle. She had found him leaning against a railing on a balcony, glass of champagne in one hand and his eyes on his home planet above him. He'd been surprised to see her though less surprised than she had been.

"Ahh, Venus-sama, a pleasure." he greeted her, saluting her with his glass. She was still in her senshi fuku and was pleased that he still noticed her nice legs under the nearly too short skirt. She had joined him there, willing her butterflies from her stomach--good heavens, men never made her this nervous before!--and grinned at him.

"The pleasure's all mine." _Really._ she thought, staring at his smile. "Escaping your prince, Kunzite-sama?"

"More like he escaped me." he admittedly with a rueful but somewhat pleased grin. "Probably making moves on your princess."

Venus had half a mind to waltz in there and split up that couple before Endymion charmed himself into her princess's bed--then again, Serenity could be charming _herself_ into _his_ bed. She was sneaky like that--and only stopped when he gave her that leering grin and she felt bold enough to leer back at him--the man did have impressive shoulders--making him grin more at her.

"What's the matter, Venus-sama, don't you remember being young and in love?" he asked, sipping his drink.

"Young?" she snorted. "You make you and me sound old."

"Well, how _young_ are you?" he shot back.

"22." she told him proudly. He whistled in appreciation, giving her legs a more in-depth look. She flushed but moved her posture to better show off her legs to him. "How **old** are you, Kunzite-sama?" she shot back at him, making him look back into her eyes and she felt her knees go weak.

"...34." he informed her finally, downing the rest of his drink in a single gulp while she stared him. When he finished he gave her another lecherous smile. "Still interested in this **old** man, Venus-sama?"

"You're not old!" she told him with a smile. "And if we go by my world's calendar, I'm older anyway."

"Really?" he said with a interested look but frowned like her when they heard a ruckus coming from an alcove some place farther down from their balcony. Shaking his head, he turned back to her. "What exactly did Jadeite do to earn the eternal ire of Mars-sama anyway?"

"Be a man?" she snorted without thinking. With a "eep" she realized what she said and tried to avoid Kunzite's curious look. "I--um--well--Mars, she...doesn't--you know?"

"No, can't say I do." he informed her, raising a brow.

"She..." for a minute she stared at him before blurting out the secret. "She hates men. Her father's fault, really."

Kunzite raised a brow. "Really?"

"Really." she said, kicking herself for blurting out one of the deepest secrets of the senshi--like Makoto never knowing who her father was, like Ami's mother dying after living with depression, like her with all her own unofficial siblings, and who Serenity's father really was--to an outsider. A really cute, incredibly charismatic outsider, but still an outsider.

Oddly, he didn't do what she'd thought he'd do. She'd thought he'd demand more information--and the way she was going that night, he'd probably know everything from the secret head quarters of Queen Serenity to her own cup size--but he'd left alone and moved to a different subject.

"Soo, just who many senshi are there anyway?"

Alright, still classified information, but from a guardian's point of view, it was kinda necessary information. At least that's what she told herself as she rattled off anything she thought of.

---

"What--" began Kunzite, with amused confusion. "--are you _doing?"_

Grinning at the silver haired man, she sauntered up straight to his side. "Visiting. Aren't you glad to see me?"

"Immensely." he informed her, tossing an arm over her shoulders and planting a almost-but-what-she-reallyreally-hoped-wasn't a brotherly kiss on her forehead, he grinned at her. "I'm surprised though. I thought you were always guarding the princess."

"I am." she sniffed, trying to look charming and pouty. "I'm on a bit of vacation. Are you really glad to see me?"

"Ecstatic." he told her with a grin. "What's with the get-up though?" he asked looking down at her golden orange dress she wore to her most important social functions.

"It's what I wear when I'm not in my fuku if you must know." she sniffed again. "I'd thought you'd like to see it."

He smirked at her. "But I am, Venus-sama." He frowned suddenly at her. "Wait, that doesn't seem quite right when your not a senshi. What would like me to call you, princess?" he tacked on the affectionate nick name at the end with another grin.

"Princess Minako." she told him in a huff, turning from him completely. He did exactly what she had hoped he would; he walked in to the front of her and gave her a bow.

"Of course, my lady! Please, excuse this poor fool of a man for his petty insults, Minako-sama." he spoke with great mirth in his voice and when he looked up at her, she saw his laughter dancing in his eyes. Grinning, she curtsied back to him.

"But of course, Kunzite-sama." she chirped. He grinned and offered his arm to her and she quite happily latched on. "Where to now, Kunzite-sama?"

"Why my dear, you should meet my troops!" he laughed, leading out of the tent he'd been working with his strategies in and out into the large courtyard outside the royal forest surrounding the Earth Castle. "Stout boys, who can only hope to learn something of greatness from me." he joked in a loud boasting manner that already had his men laughing. Minako smiled at him as he lead her other to them. They were all relatively young and greeted them fondly.

"Hello, miss!"

"Cap'n gone got himself a looker!"

"Cap'n, where'd you go to find such a dame?"

Minako couldn't help but giggle at the greeting--Kunzite's men reminded her of the silver haired general himself--and gave them a small wave. The bunch of them--Kunzite, Minako, and the group of twenty or so men--were talking and laughing when a young page ran up to Kunzite nervously to deliver a message.

"Milord!" he piped anxiously, --he looked only twelve, she thought to herself--. "Endymion-sama sends for you, Kunzite-sama!"

Kunzite became more somber as he nodded to the boy. "Will you excuse me, Minako-sama? It seems my liege has need of me."

Giving a sniff, she nodded and waved him off as he rode to the castle. When he was out of sight, she bade farewell to his men and slipped off so she could teleport home, hoping would notice her long absence.

_If Serenity were to find out that I'm the one sneaking off now to meet men, I'll never hear the end of it!_

---

Well, Serenity did finally hear of it--and yes, she still after three weeks hadn't heard the end of it--and insisted she and the other senshi come once in awhile when she made the trips down to earth. Minako remembered the second to last time she ever saw Kunzite truly be himself. They'd been at another ball, and the two of them slipped off to his room to get away from the loud music and Minako tried to hide from Serenity's knowing eyes. As long as she didn't see the look that Serenity gave her and him when they where side-by-side off in their own little piece of the universe, she could convince herself that she wasn't already deeply in love with the Shitennou leader.

"So," he grinned as they slipped out the door and began to wander the earth palace--once again, she was out of uniform and he was giving her bare arms the same hungry look she was giving his hips--as they hid from the rest of the universe. "where would you like to go?"

After a moment of feeling very naughty, she said the first thing that came to mind. "Your rooms."

He lifted a brow and tugged her in the direction of his rooms. His rooms, she found, were a lot like himself, neat, polished, and a bit messy around his various desks that were ladled with maps and books. The furniture was dark and fashionable, leather and dark cherry wood. His bed, she found as they tumbled upon like a mad whirlwind, was soft but firm like the skin that her fingers skidded over as they wrestled their clothes off. When she fell asleep in his embrace she felt changed but content.

When she awoke, she found him as pale as a ghost as he stared out the window, a short crumpled parchment explaining the loss of his troop and the abandonment of the royal base in his hand.

Her world went upside down.

---

The last she saw him, he proposed.

She shot him down. Once a senshi, always a senshi.

---

_You know what, Kunzite? I should of said yes._ she thought as his blade impaled her stomach. She already lost so much, her princess, her senshi, her lover, why not her life too?

But as her sight dimmed, those dead eyes flickered with life for a moment. Feeling pity for the man trapped in the monster, she stabbed her dagger through the back of his neck, severing his spinal cord and slicing his wind pipe as he drowned in his own blood.

Her corpse and his were intertwined in a lover's knot in the end and before her life slipped away for forever she thought.

_I should have said yes, my darling._


End file.
